Aberdeen will host the inaugural sanctioned state tournaments for high school girls softball in 2023. The recommendation was approved on Thursday during the South Dakota High School Activities Association board of directors meeting to make the Hub City the host community.
“We did not go through the site selection process like we normally do with sites, just because of the interest in time and things of that nature,” stated SDHSAA assistant executive director Jo Auch. “My recommendation was to head to Northern in Aberdeen, the Players Complex in Aberdeen and use those two complexes to play all three classes of our inaugural state softball tournament.”
Last November, the SDHSAA board of directors officially adopted girls high school softball as a sanctioned sport in South Dakota, and then in January of this year, a decision was made to make it a spring sport. The Mt. Rushmore state was the last state in the nation to sanction high school girls softball.
For the inaugural state tournaments, a key focal point on site location was finding a spot that had multiple fields, and a stadium setting for the championship games.
“One of the things we were looking for was that stadium setting for our softball championships, to make it special for our girls, and we were able to find that in Northern, and we’re excited to be there,” Auch said. “It’ll be a one-year thing to start, and then formal process of site selection moving forward.”
The number of teams isn’t quite set in stone yet, but as it sits today, there are 17 teams in AA, 21 in A, and 19 in B – three classes for the sport.
“It’s been a long time coming. We’ve been talking about it this for five-six years, and to have it come to completion here and to get it up and running has been a real treat for me,” exclaimed Auch. “I’m looking forward to where this is going to go, continuing to give opportunities to girls to participate in athletics.”
Another challenge, besides getting schools to participate, is finding umpires. The SDHSAA has been leaning on other organizations in the state in those regards.
“We’re looking for umpires,” said Auch. “We’re hoping that many of our umpires who are doing some of our fall ball and summer ball will get registered.”
The 2023 State Softball Tournaments will take place on June 1-3, the week following the state track and field championships. Each class of softball will send eight teams to the state tournament with a SoDak 16 playoff format, like volleyball and basketball, to decide the state qualifying teams.
